


Finding Home

by cherryblossom



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, M/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:14:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24358654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherryblossom/pseuds/cherryblossom
Summary: Living in a kingdom where the people of magic's mere existence had been illegalised for a century now, Taeyong never thought he'd ever meet one of their kind. One little slip-up and his life could never go back to what it once was.More tags, characters and relationships will be added as I go. Rating may change.
Relationships: Lee Taeyong/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Finding Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am now back with another fic! I hope you will like it. Huge thanks to @johnyongclub who read through the first chapter for me before posting. It's probably a bit OOC but I hope it's still enjoyable.

It was pouring as Taeyong dashed across the courtyard. That Jaehyun had forgotten his gauntlets on this day of any, was just typical.

The rain hit his face harshly, but once under roof again he breathed out and dried his face with the sleeves of his sweater. He was shivering. The seasons were changing, winter would soon be over, and that meant that the awkward phase between bitter, cold winter and breezy, blossoming spring was presented in its full glory. 

His frail body continued to freeze, even as he got indoors. He rubbed his arms and hands to gain some warmth from the friction. The cleaning ladies were surely going to have a go at him if they knew who had left all these wet spots on the floors; scrubbed so clean that he could see his face in its sparkling reflection. 

He managed to sneak undiscovered through the hallway leading towards the guards’ chambers. There were many doors. For a stranger it would be rather difficult as of where to go; it was all the same in the smaller corridors of the castle. Identical hallways with identical furniture. The only details to separate the corridors were the paintings hung on the walls and the crests of which staff used to differentiate the chambers in that specific hallway. Luckily for Taeyong, he had started to make sense of them after his few years at the castle; even more so over the last year, often having to run errands for Jaehyun during his own breaks from the kitchen. He opened the door to what he knew was the room which Jaehyun spent his nights in.

The room was empty like expected. That meant the guards in Jaehyun’s squad were doing their job right, and Taeyong remained unseen. Although the permit to retrieve the gauntlets given by Jaehyun, most guards didn’t take kindly to others roaming their quarters. He walked over to Jaehyun’s bed to see his old and torn plush stuffed under his pillow, hidden for his fellow colleagues. It wasn’t something he had spoken to Taeyong about, but he was sure Jaehyun wasn’t all too buddy with the guards in his faction. Even after a year of working with them, he never really talked about them to Taeyong. He hoped they treated Jaehyun fairly and that the reason for Jaehyun’s silence wasn’t related to loneliness within his branch.

He sat down on the bed and reached over for the chest which held the wanted items. He started to dive about the contents of Jaehyun’s belongings. Most of it was underwear and books he probably didn’t read and— aha! Jaehyun’s set of winter gauntlets. He smiled to himself as he closed the chest and tied them to his belt. He had made sure to leave Jaehyun’s bed a little damp for him to complain about later, before making his way out.

He moved down the corridor as he was stopped.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Taeyong spun around to notice a guard dashing towards him. He stood in shock as the guard full on tackled Taeyong to the ground. “You are under arrest!”

Taeyong looked around him confused. Had he got the wrong person? Though no one had ran or even walked past Taeyong on his way back to where Jaehyun stood waiting for him at his post by the kitchen. 

“What’s going on?!” Taeyong demanded in uttermost desperation.

The guard scoffed. “Don’t play stupid with me, thief. Outsiders are prohibited to snoop around the castle. It is common sense!”

He forced Taeyong against the wall and bound hands together as the baker did his best to not wince in pain at how tightly his wrists were being abused with the rope and tried to explain his situation.

“I’m not an outsider!” He managed as he was thrown over the shoulder. “I have a permit!”

The guard put him back down and checked Taeyong’s pockets. It was to no avail. Taeyong starts to slowly panic as he realises he must’ve dropped the permit given to him by Jaehyun. 

“I had it! I swear I—” Taeyong was silenced.

”Tell that to the prison inmates,” the guard said and picked Taeyong back up, throwing the young man over his shoulder and started his route to what Taeyong knew would be the cellar.

”I’m literally the baker! The festivities will be doomed without my help!” he says desperately. The guard doesn’t seem to care as he gives Taeyong a punch in the outer side his thigh and growls for the smaller man to shut up. Taeyong reluctantly reciprocates.

In his silenced state his stomach starts to fill with worry. Was this a mistake? Would they be able to rectify this problem? Or was he truly guilty since he lost the permit?

Taeyong noted that him being thrown into the cellar, was indeed correct. He also noted that the route to the cellar from the guards' chambers was rather short, having them quickly devoured by a dark and damp stairwell, only lit by torches. It smelled awful. He prayed for Jaehyun to save his ass quickly and he would promise to bake him all the caramel pretzels he could ask for until they both retired. What mess he had gotten himself into.

Once reached the bottom of the staircase, the guard opened a heavy wooden door. Taeyong gulped, knowing from the looks of it, he would never be able to open that door himself even if it was unlocked. 

“Warmest of welcomes to the dungeon, _lurcher_ ,” the guard laughed as his fat fingers fiddled the silver keys that hung from his keychain. He walked further into the corridor of cells, having Taeyong spectating prisoners watching him with glaring eyes. Taeyong gulped.

He also noted that the sayings weren’t too far from true; “Everyone but riches will eventually see the condition of the Cyrolian prison.” You barely had to be guilty to earn yourself a spot in the dungeon.

Being carried through the hallway, very rarely did he see cells with lone people in them. Most cells were filled with two or three people. In the streets, it was a harsh world, so to a degree, Taeyong wasn’t shocked by the awful condition. 

When they had got far down the hallway, the guard chuckled. Taeyong got tense in suspense of what the douche who held him had planned. However the guard did not say anything, he simply opened a barred door and threw Taeyong in, leaving his body bounce against the cobblestone, surely resulting bruises to appear on his body.

The guard threw the barred door shut and rustling keys locked it. Taeyong winced in pain as he tried to move and eventually came to a sitting position. His hands were still bound, so he couldn’t reach to touch his pulsating head. He couldn’t check if the pulsing was warm blood, a concussion or both. His shoulder had taken a bad hit too.

He gathered his thoughts and looked up, blurry vision reaching beyond the bars on the door. The guard was gone but across the room, he saw an eye. One eye as blue as the summer skies but as cold as ice.

The eye wrapped its hands around the bars on their own cell door and a person appeared in the dimmed darkness. He looked young, around Taeyong’s own age. The other eye was hidden by an eyepatch. The rough look sent a shiver down Taeyong’s spine.

Taeyong shuffled closer to the cold iron bars of the door, he tried speaking but stopped when he realised the man opposite of him wasn’t looking at him. The man was looking behind him.

Taeyong tensed up, a wave of fear crept upon him. He slowly turned his head. There stood a big man, big in height and broad from muscles on the otherwise slender body. His hair was black as charcoal, parted slightly to the side and falling into his eyes. And oh, his _eyes_. Taeyong had to gulp. Fierce mahogany ones with intense hints of red were staring down at him intensely. Taeyong shifted position, back pressed against the bars.

The figure tilted his head, a crack escaped his muscles. He takes a step closer and a hand reaches out for Taeyong, grabbing his unwounded arm and pulled him up to his feet. Taeyong let’s out a yelp in surprise and tries to catch his balance— to no help of the uneven floor. 

Taeyong admits that some very repelling ideas forced themselves onto Taeyong’s mind when he was spun around, facing the bars. Unsuspectingly lucky for him, though, the stranger's hands reached for his bound ones. Something sharp cut the rope and his arms were free to move again.

Taeyong spun back around and faced the ember eyes, staring him down both literally and figuratively. For a hot minute, they just stood there, inspecting each other while Taeyong let his heavy pants of fear calm down. The figure then turned and walked further back into the cell again. Taeyong watched him. He slumped down on a pile of hay and closed his eyes.

Taeyong’s eyes found the blue one across the hallway again. This time grinning at the two of them before retreated into his own darkness. He lifted his hands to check how badly they’ve been bruised. They were marked; he figured he hadn’t been bound long enough for the ropes to leave any longer-lasting marks. He touched his head and sighed in relief as he realised that his injured cranium wasn’t bleeding. He pulled down the collar of his sweater and thankfully the skin hadn’t broken on his shoulder either, but he could see a nasty and red bruise slowly taking form. 

He let his sweater slip back into place, covering up his wound. He noticed the tall man eyeball him.

“I’m Taeyong,” he said; it came out more as a squeak. He had no idea how long he’d be stuck in here so he might as well make the best of it. 

Taeyong was met with silence and if he hadn’t suddenly realised that the royal dungeon specifically, was known for having people of magic locked up, he would’ve thought the red shine which leapt across the stranger's eyes was a mere illusion.

He awkwardly looked back to the cell opposite of theirs, uncomfortable under the intense stare of ember eyes. Maybe the other prisoner could help him, he thought, but the blue eye had not peaked through the darkness again. He shifted the weight on his feet and fiddled with his sleeves until he decided to step further down into the cell. 

The cell consisted of a small table with one chair, a small chest, a bedroll and a pile of hay. Taeyong untied Jaehyun’s gauntlet’s from where they hung on his hip and sat down on the lone chair. He carefully placed the gauntlets on the table, next to a messy stack of parchment. He looked over at the other prisoner again to notice that the man eyes still hadn’t left Taeyong. He felt the blood rush to his face in embarrassment. Taeyong had always been shy, being a small and skinny boy made him an easy target for the other boys in the neighbourhood. The acne that blossomed on his face over his teen years had only made the bullying worse. He was lucky for having had Jaehyun. 

“Where did you get your scar,” the other man suddenly spoke, voice deep and raspy. Taeyong’s hand reached to cover the right side of his right eye. A reflex to when an insecurity of his was being pointed out.

The other prisoner sat up straighter in the haystack. They stared each other down yet again.

“I’ve had it since I was a child,” he explained timidly. He didn’t have a lot of information on the scar himself; he only knew it had something to do with his father. 

The other man didn’t say anything in return. Taeyong shifted his legs, dragging the knees to his chest, preserving the warmth to the best of his abilities. He brought Jaehyun’s gauntlets to his bosom and stroked the fur at the hems, the softness of them and the action of fiddling easing his nerves.

Time passed on. Taeyong thought of home. His brother and mother. Jaehyun. He wondered how long it would be until someone noticed he was gone. Jaehyun expected him to return with the gauntlets, after all, his hands must be cold. 

Approximately an hour must’ve gone by when someone stumbled through the cellar halls. Taeyong felt fear, but slight hope was knit in his stomach. “ _Please be Jaehyun,”_ he thought just as a shout echoed through the hallways.

“Taeyong!” there was desperation in the voice.

“Jaehyun! Here!” he shouted back, recognising the other’s voice. He let the gauntlets fall out of his grasp as he dashed to the cell door. 

He could hear Jaehyun run to where his voice came from. “Taeyong! Taeyong, Taeyong,” he gasped as he found the baker. “Oh shit, I got so worried, what the fuck man,” he swore as he folded over to catch his breath. 

“I’m so sorry I lost the permit I—” Taeyong felt shame wash over him. 

“Gods, no, that motherfucker I’m so—” Jaehyun held back to gather himself. “Which guard was it?” he asked calmer. 

Taeyong shook his head. “I don’t know.” 

Jaehyun pushed his hair back. “I’ll figure something out. But I… the ball will make it difficult. The head guard is nastily busy. Please hold on for a week, I’ll fix this,” Jaehyun pleaded.

Taeyong smiled softly, he felt warm in his heart experiencing that his friend would help him, no matter what. He reached out his hand through the iron bars to caress his friend’s cheek. 

“Hey, I trust you. I’m fine. Jaehyunnie, I’m fine.” Jaehyun seemed to noticeably calm down under Taeyong’s touch. “Just come visit me alright? And tell my mother and Jisung about the situation.”

Jaehyun straightened himself out and nodded. “I will,” he said. “I have to go now, I ran from my post when I heard the guards gossiping,” he admitted. Taeyong chuckled.

“Don’t worry. I trust you,” Taeyong reassured one last time. Jaehyun nodded and they said their goodbyes. Taeyong felt a lot better, having his friend and family knowing he didn't just vanish. He turns back and realises he had forgotten to give Jaehyun his gauntlets, he would do that next time. He was about to go back to his spot on the chair but he noticed the other prisoner staring him down again. Taeyong looked back to see if Jaehyun was still there, to find some support, but like expected, he wasn’t there. He looked back at the man.

“Yes?” he called the man out. What was this dude’s problem?

This time the other man shifted his gaze elsewhere. The other man cleared his throat. He muttered something.

“Yes?” Taeyong repeated himself, a much more confident this time.

“Sorry…” the man said, not looking directly into Taeyong’s eyes. Taeyong crossed his arms and stood for a second before he went to sit back on the chair. He crossed his legs as well.

“So you’re ready to talk now?” Taeyong asked. He realised how petty he sounded and uncrossed his arms. 

The man sighed and straightened himself. “Sure.”

“Really?” Taeyong replied a bit eagerly. He shifted and corrected himself. “I mean, finally.” The other man scoffed, seemingly entertained.

“So. What would you like to know.”

“Well your name would be nice,” said Taeyong. He could almost see a smile appear on the other man's face.

“It’s Johnny”. Taeyong nodded. “Okay, my turn to ask.”

“Huh?” 

“I have questions as well,” Johnny said. “Why are you in here?”

Taeyong sighed. “I walked the hallways without a permit. I’m a baker. _Was_ a baker. What about you?” Taeyong could now confirm there was a growing grin on Johnny’s face this time. “What?”

“I’m a dragon.” Taeyong went quiet, eyes emitting the shock he felt. “You scared?” 

Taeyong kept silent, Johnny’s ember eyes glowing as the dragon awaited an answer. 

Taeyong thought about it. He had heard rumours about people with magic abilities, he knew they ruled Cyrolia before the change of throne had banned them, but he had never met one. He never thought he would ever meet one. Taeyong admitted, he wasn’t read up on magic. Since the subject was very strictly untalked about, due to the illegality, knowledge had quickly faded— and now he was staring the forbidden truth in the eye. He stood not just in front of any magician. He stood in front of a _dragon_. 

Deciding whether or not to judge him out of assumptions thrown around on the streets about Johnny’s kind, he listened to the feeling of his gut and decided to take the risk of following his intuition.

“No,” Taeyong said with a newfound determination in his voice. His first impression of Johnny hadn’t exactly been “safe” or “friendly”, but the man hadn’t done anything bad to him yet. He trusted his gut and ability to read people that Johnny wasn’t going to hurt him, either. Therefore, he had nothing to be scared of. 

Johnny looked at him with sudden surprise, not expecting Taeyong to be accepting of his kind.

“I don’t know much about magicians, let alone dragons. I don’t know much of the history behind this country or whatever. I do however know that you’re not going to hurt me.” Johnny sat quiet and nodded his head. His eyes shifted tone. 

“Thank you,” Johnny said. Taeyong felt himself smile, seeing the dragon relax. Although Johnny visually was big and scary, the matching personality seemed to be nothing but a façade. 

”How long have you been in here?”

“Around two years now.”

“How do you stand it?” 

Johnny hummed. “I don’t. But, I suppose friends can be found in all the crooks and crannies of the world.” He looked over at Taeyong who was nodding, thinking. “Do you have any friends, Taeyong?” he asked.

Taeyong looked a bit shocked. “Didn’t you see Jaehyun just now?” he asked confused, halfheartedly pointing to the hallway. 

Johnny rolled his eyes. “Beats me, I was sure you were more than friends,” he smirks. 

A flush of pink appeared on Taeyong’s cheeks at the implication of him and Jaehyun being something more. He was for the first time now happy for the darkness in the cell. He very much used to have a crush on Jaehyun. Jaehyun had all the right traits: very kind and smart but still witty and could be serious when need be. It had helped that he had a nice body. But the crush had faded many years ago, and Taeyong had put his daily focus on more important matters than love.

“We’re more like brothers,” Taeyong said. “He means a lot to me.”

Johnny nodded, accepting the answer.

“How about you?” Taeyong shifted his legs and leaned slightly forward in interest. “Tell me about your friends,” he asked. “In the crooks and crannies of prison.”

Johnny smiled back at him. “Well, Doyoung across the hallway is a nice guy. The guards aren’t,” he chuckled. Taeyong nodded but was interrupted by the death of the torch hanging outside the cell. Johnny stretched his arms. “Well, this is our cue to sleep,” he said, keeping the topic of friends short.

They both stood in silence for a couple of minutes until Johnny’s voice was heard again. “Where do you want to sleep? You can have the bedroll if you’d like.”

“Are you sure? That would be really nice of you…”

“Take the bedroll,” Johnny confirmed with a smile.

“What about you, though?”

“I don’t sleep a lot. The haystack’s just fine.” The silence dragged on again and Taeyong moved. He crept into the bedroll and buried himself in it. It smelled damp and dirty, but it was better than the floor.

“Tell me if you’re cold,” Johnny said. Taeyong nodded although that couldn’t be seen.

“Okay,” he said.

Johnny rustled around a bit and the silence crept on.

Taeyong let his mind wander. This morning he had woken up in the kitchen staff chamber just like any other morning. He had made toast for the guards. Bickered with Jaehyun over coffee. No morning would ever be like that again. Even if Jaehyun managed to get him out of the cell, he would be thrown out of the castle, he was sure.

He sighed. Out of all possible endings to his life, he was stuck in a prison cell. With a dragon, someone who’s mere existence was illegal. He couldn’t help his pity for the man. Johnny didn’t seem like a bad person, he could be in here without even having done anything wrong. The injustice made Taeyong’s stomach knot. He tried thinking of what he knew about magicians and dragons.

He knew that they used to be in charge of the country for a long long time, although Taeyong had never reflected over if they ruled it well, as it was almost a hundred years ago, after all. Taeyong wasn’t sure if he even knew someone that old. 

Taeyong had always been taught and told how dangerous magicians and dragon folk were. But just maybe… they could be useful as well. If they all were like Johnny, they were just regular people, weren’t they? Magic was obviously something that could be used to endanger others, but...

Taeyong shook his head. He’d just have to ask Johnny more tomorrow. He would surely have more knowledge on the matter. Why was he even assuming Johnny was a good person anyway? All the thoughts scattering his brain had made him exhausted. He stopped thinking and left himself drift away to sleep.

Taeyong woke up shivering. His feet felt like ice blocks and his fingers hurt to move. It took him a couple of moments before he was fully awake, sitting up, trying to make himself seem small to preserve body heat. He remembers Johnny’s statement to call out for him if he was cold. He cleared his throat and did just so.

With almost an instant he noticed two shining eyes were looking at him from where Johnny had decided to go to sleep.

“I’m freezing,” Taeyong told him through chattering teeth.

The eyes blinked and disappeared for a bit. It was all quiet until Taeyong felt someone lift him to his feet and put him in the haystack, the bedroll ripped up like a blanket and put on top of him.

“Sleep here,” Johnny said, voice lower than before. Taeyong looked at him confused and although the darkness, Johnny seemed to have better night vision than him. It made sense, Taeyong decided. It was probably a dragon thing.

“But where will you sleep?” Taeyong asked carefully.

“I’m fine, I’ve slept enough,” said Johnny and Taeyong could make out gestures in the dark, indicating the other stretching his upper body. 

Taeyong moved to the hay but didn’t feel much warmer there. He opened his mouth in hesitation to question the situation when a small flame lit up the room. Fire held in Johnny’s hand.

“Whoa,” Taeyong gasped. He could see Johnny smile a little. Hands reached for Taeyong’s as the flame went out. Johnny’s hands were really warm. Taeyong could feel his face heat up too. Taeyong blamed the dead flame.

They sat like that, letting time pass and Taeyong’s body started to reach normal temperatures again. Johnny heated the leather bedroll for him, as well. Taeyong felt much warmer. Cosy, even.

“Thank you,” he told Johnny. Feeling extremely grateful for the stranger he was put in a cell with.

“Don’t mention it,” Johnny replied. “In here, we got each other’s back. Unless, of course, you’ve done something unforgivable, which in that case you won’t last very long.”

Taeyong cuddled up in the now warm bedroll, pulling the cover over his shoulders. He misses his bed and real bedsheets, but it could be much worse than this.

Taeyong was barely awake when something creaked in the cell, but he was too far into his slumber to acknowledge it as reality. Sleep caught up to him and he was soon snoring soundly. 

The morning was only noticed by Johnny’s muscles that cracked when he stretched and his heavy stomping. Someone had lit the torches in the hallway again but just like last night, they didn’t really light up more than absolutely necessary. Taeyong fished in his pocket to look at his watch but realised when he had opened the locket, that sadly, it had shattered when he had been thrown into the cell the previous day. He grunted alongside the rumble of his stomach. 

“Get used to that, we get dinner but that’s about it,” Johnny said as he made himself comfortable on the chair, starting to organise the parchment papers on the table. Taeyong pouted to himself.

“Where did you get a pen to write?” Taeyong questioned, not wanting to talk about the lack of food. Johnny gave him an amused look.

“I have my ways.”

As some time went by, Taeyong just tried to sleep in due to the lack of anything else to do. Although his best efforts, Taeyong didn’t feel himself being able to sleep anymore. What caused him to stir awake from his half-sleep, though, was a voice unfamiliar to him.

“So you’re treating him well, Johnny?” Taeyong looked confused and browsed the cell. It was still only them there. 

“Bug off, Kim,” Johnny smirked. “Just the first night.” 

Taeyong sat up properly and looked to Johnny and followed to where his eyes were looking. All the way to the other cell where the man with the blue eye was all present. The man noticed him too.

“Ah, he’s awake,” the other man exclaimed. “Good morning.” He shot Taeyong toothy smile. Taeyong didn’t reply, still dazed and confused as to what was happening around him. “Not even a good morning back? Aw, man, he’s no fun.”

“Hi,” Taeyong said as per reflex after the man had called him out.

“This is Kim Doyoung,” Johnny grinned. “A genius magician, but an absolute ass.” Doyoung rolled his eye, faking annoyment. 

“I’ll take the compliment.”

“I’m—”

“Lee Taeyong I know. You’re quite the talk around here,” Doyoung said, showing with his eye that “here” meant the prison. Not that it could mean anywhere else. “You have guard friends, it makes quite the gossip!” Doyoung exclaimed. Taeyong was confused to how Doyoung would even be able to strike a conversation with anyone but their own cell across the hallway, but he didn't ask. 

“Oh, Jaehyun, yes,” Taeyong acknowledged. The thought of being a highlighted topic within other groups of people made him feel shy. He wasn’t used to being someone of interest to anyone.

As soon as the topic of Jaehyun had been mentioned, the guard’s door creaked open, a familiar face showing as the footsteps got closer to Taeyong’s cell. Jaehyun had a blue striped kitchen cloth in his hands and a soft smile on his face. Taeyong stood up to meet him.

“Good morning,” he said and Jaehyun snorted.

“At least you get to sleep until noon,” joked Jaehyun. He handed Taeyong the cloth package. Taeyong moved back to the table and Johnny moved some papers for Taeyong to get a bit of table to use for himself. 

He unwrapped the cloth to find two bread rolls and a small jar of jam placed in between them. The smell of bread had never smelled so exquisite. A grin spread out on his face as he felt an overwhelming feeling of gratefulness for his friend’s existence.

“You are an absolute lifesaver, you know that?” Taeyong exclaimed, bringing a laugh to Jaehyun’s lips. 

Having exposed the bread, Taeyong noticed Johnny was gripping his feathered pen rather hard and not moving. He saw Doyoung glaring daggers into his wall. Taeyong didn’t know if it was jealousy or simple hatred for authority types.

Taeyong thought for a bit, looking at the bread. He was truly starving, not having eaten since lunch yesterday. But Johnny had exclaimed life was rough enough in prison that this was an unbelievable luxury. If he was starving, he could only imagine how hungry the rest of the inmates would be.

He picked up the two bread rolls and divided them into three almost equal parts (although one third was in two parts due to the complications of dividing two by three) and spread out the jam evenly. 

“Jaehyun? Give this to Doyoung please,” Taeyong told his friend, who looked shocked, although not half as shocked as the wizard in the other cell.

“Sure thing,” Jaehyun said and escorted the bread to the other prisoner, who just looked at him. Taeyong could tell there was intense emotion in his eyes, although he couldn’t tell which one. After a staring contest, Doyoung took the jam spread bread.

The other piece, which just so happened to be a bit bigger, Taeyong handed to his fellow inmate. He thought Johnny deserved it for being kind enough to help Taeyong sleep last night. 

Sharing meals wasn’t a new concept to Taeyong. Ever since he was little he had found much enjoyment in baking. A result of having to cook while his mother brought home the coin for the family and Jisung obviously being too young to be doing any excessive chores.

When Taeyong had leftovers, whether it be from the royal kitchens or in the kitchenette in his family home, he shared. Mainly to his family members, but often to Jaehyun and Jaehyun’s grandfather who both spent long days in the forest, cutting trees and things of the sort. Today, Taeyong returned to old habits and shared food again.

“I see you’ve made friends,” Jaehyun smiles surprised at him.

Taeyong rolled his eyes. “Am I really that unfriendly enough for you to be shocked by that?” he chuckled, taking a bite of his one piece of bread from his share. 

“Yes,” Jaehyun joked, exposing his dimples. 

They shared a few more words until Jaehyun had to leave before someone noticed him gone from his position. When Jaehyun was gone, he noticed his two new acquaintances looking at him.

“Why did you do that,” Doyoung demanded to know. Staring at him with his cold blue eye. Taeyong was a tad taken aback from the reaction. Taeyong gulped.

“I can’t say I complain,” Johnny said from behind Taeyong, still at the table. “I’ll take whatever is given to me.” Doyoung seemed to ease up a little.

“Seo Johnny, you have no shame,” he said and finally took a bite of his share. “I’m not a charity case.”

Taeyong nodded, turning to Johnny as Doyoung’s attention strayed elsewhere.

“Well, I hope this becomes a habit,” was all Johnny said, then returning to his papers, letting the cells return to its regular silence.

Like Johnny had wished, Jaehyun showed up like clockwork every noon. He even went through the extra effort of bringing three bread rolls the following days. The three prisoners grew a bit closer. Taeyong learned that Johnny and Doyoung would banter often and even compared power to one another by flexing muscles and comparing the funniest pranks they had managed to pull off in their freedom. Doyoung had given someone a wedgie by using his magic abilities. Johnny had set a mean girl’s hair on fire when he was out swimming once. The two were very good friends, having met in prison and spent around an equal amount of time locked up.

Evening approached on the fifth day. It was the day before the ball, Jaehyun had reminded him. The guards had had a busy week, but today many of them were off duty to rest up for the grand morrow. Jaehyun, however, worked this evening but would get his free day on the day after the grand festive. That was the day when he was planning to bail Taeyong out of prison. 

Almost all guards of the capital were being called in for the ball. The kingdom was celebrating a hundred years in power of the non-magicians. This would be the biggest, most extravagant ball of the century.

Taeyong tried to sleep that evening, he found there was nothing better to do. When he had finally managed to fall into a slumber, he woke up just an hour and a half later, only to realise that Johnny wasn’t present.

Having your cellmate missing when the cell bars are nationally infamous for being impenetrable (and visibly dense), the questions started to rise. 

Taeyong browsed the room to try to understand where Johnny could’ve gone. He couldn’t just have vanished, could he? 

He looked over at Doyoung’s cell. No activity was shown there either.

At this point, Taeyong was fully alerted and eyes batting around the cells to try to figure out where the two of them could’ve gone. Johnny’s papers were gone as well, probably in Johnny’s possession. 

He stumbled upon his feet, eyes darting furiously to where Johnny could have escaped. His mind first went to the table and if that was intuition or simply a hint due to the lack of papers, Taeyong didn’t know. When his hands searched the tabletop surface to no avail, he tried tilting it to look behind it. 

The tilt must’ve hit some button and a small passage opened itself through the mason wall. Taeyong stumbled backwards in surprise. The hallway was lined with candles, lighting up a path. 

Taeyong gulped but decided to step inside the passage. Once his feet had hit three steps inside the small hallway, the mason wall closed behind him, leaving Taeyong no other choice on the journey but to move ahead.

The cobbled floor in the cave-like hallway was muddy and thus very slippery. Taeyong held his hand along the wall to grip onto something if he was to fall. Eventually he reached a staircase leading down, candles becoming torches and the hallway widening at the end of it. The sound of Taeyong tiptoeing was slowly accompanied by a vague murmur from further down the hallway. As he got closer he could start to make out words. 

“How did you even get your hands on this?”

“Don’t underestimate me, dude. You have no idea how much I’ve collected over the past two years.”

The voices were too vague to recognise the voices. Taeyong crept forward until he found himself in front of a door, conveniently ajar for Taeyong to sneak peek into the room. There were Johnny and Doyoung standing around a table with another unfamiliar face. 

“But like, you actually got it! Doyoung you’re the best,” said the unfamiliar face. 

“Of course I did, you asked for a crossbow and I got you one,” Doyoung grinned. Johnny stood next to them chuckling along.

The unfamiliar face fiddled with the crossbow. Taeyong recognised it for being a regular guard’s crossbow, but regardless it’s mediocrity, the holder was beaming. Doyoung had rolled up his sleeves and parchment papers were spread out between them.

“So if we’re going to do this it looks like we’re gonna have to break a few windows,” Johnny pointed at the parchment. Taeyong recognised the papers as Johnny’s and on them was drawn a map. “We’ll continue back this way and then there’s a trapdoor right around the back. We’ll get easy access to the backstreets and then straight for the forest. We might have to fight, but I’m sure we can manage.”

“I can’t believe it’s finally time…” Doyoung looked serious but Taeyong spotted an ever so slight smile on his lips regardless. “We’ve waited for so long, Ten’s already starting to grow grey hairs.”

The unfamiliar face gasped in offense. “I’m only a year older than you, you dweeb,” he said and playfully hit Doyoung on the arm. The friendly banter made Taeyong smile, but not for long. As Doyoung and Ten had moved, the older of the two had stopped in his tracks and looked straight at Taeyong through the glimpse of the door.

As a reflex Taeyong shut the door and stumbled backwards. He felt as if he saw something he wasn’t supposed to see. That was probably the case, considering the prisoners (including himself) were in a secret hallway and _not_ in their cells. 

He fell backwards just in time for the door to swing open. Johnny was standing there, looking left, looking right. He sternly called out for whoever had spied on them to show themselves. 

Perhaps he couldn’t see Taeyong because of the shadows. As he stood up, in slight fear and guilt, Johnny stares at him with his big, glowing eyes.

“Taeyong what are you doing here?” he hissed and pulled him inside. All the attention was directed to him, making him feel a flush of red crawl up his cheeks.

“Uh… I was wondering where you were?” Taeyong says, the reply doubling as a question. Doyoung shook his head.

“Well, this is gonna fuck our plans up,” Ten snickered from his side of the table.

Taeyong looked down at the table, the map. “Are you escaping?” he gasped as he recognised the map as one of the castle.

Johnny sighed, ignoring Taeyong’s question, directing his eyes back to the other two inmates. “We have no choice but to bring him along.” 

“What!?” Doyoung and Ten gaped in unison. Both men looking upset as they were trying to process what Johnny had just said. “You gotta be kidding me,” Doyoung added.

Johnny looked at Taeyong up and down. “Can you fight?” he asked. 

Taeyong’s eyes widened. “Er, no? Can someone explain to me what’s going on?”

Doyoung was obviously rather annoyed with Taeyong but tried hiding it under a very strained smile as he put his arm around the shorter man's shoulders.

“Listen here,” He stared straight into Taeyong’s eyes, offering an awkward smile. “Yes. We are in fact escaping. We finally have a way out and we’re leaving.” He sighed and let go off the other's shoulders. “If Johnny says you’re coming along you better not be in our way.”

Taeyong nodded and shuffled his feet, glancing at the map. “I have a better plan though,” he said.

“What?”

Taeyong took the quill out of Ten’s hand as he walked up to the table. He outlined the dungeon on the map and drew a line from where the secret passage connected to the hallways above ground. The secret passage opened up close to where his own chamber used to be.

“Your plan looks rather solid, but if you head north instead of trying to sneak past the guard chambers and through the training ground, the plan does _not_ have to include smashing windows _nor_ does it have to include running for it and killing whoever comes your way. If you want to optimise the plan, I’d definitely not chose to pass through the guard hangouts.”

The three boys shared looks between themselves. 

“Show us what you’ve got, then,” Johnny encouraged him.

Taeyong shot them a smirk and dipped the quill in the ink. “So”— he traced the papers as he spoke—“I’m guessing you’ll reach ground floor just around the corner of the staff dormitories,” he got nods in return to his statement. “Instead of heading down the corridors and out the window to the training grounds, if you head for the kitchen, there’s a secret passage leading out to the stables.”

“Hey, wait a second, are you telling us to walk through the kitchen? It’s dinner time already,” Ten stopped him.

“Yes, there would be a lot of staff—”

“Yeah, no,” Doyoung stopped him. “We’re not going to go through with this. Not when we’ve planned this for _months_ , we’re _not_ going to let you screw us over, Johnny tell him.”

Johnny in return was quiet, thinking hard. Doyoung’s annoyance only grew. 

“Let him finish, I might have an idea,” Johnny said and nodded to Taeyong before Doyoung could call his behaviour out. Doyoung was left huffing a sigh through his nose. Taeyong gulped.

“Well, uhm. I worked in the kitchen, they know me. And Jaehyun’s on the duty of keeping guard there for tonight, leaving him the only guard we would stumble across if we can find our way to the kitchen unnoticed.” He looked up at Johnny who nodded for him to continue. “I know the kitchens have faint-hearted cooks, but Jaehyun is there and he would listen if I told him to calm them down as he leads us out of the kitchen passage. It leads you to the food storages outside right next to the stables.”

Johnny looked at Doyoung who simply shrugged in defeat. “You’re not going to listen to me anyway, so you decide then.” Taeyong could see a small smile of satisfaction on Johnny’s lips.

“So”—Johnny finally began to share his thoughts— “We’ll send Taeyong up to get Jaehyun and making sure the kitchen is safe. Ten, you’ll go with him and make sure he doesn’t go to alert the guards. After making sure it’s all clear you’ll alert us and we’ll come through. If the slightest thing goes wrong, Ten, you’ll come back here, and we will follow through with our original idea.” He looked at Ten and Taeyong. “Do you comply?” 

Ten and Taeyong nodded. “Good. Then I will see you back soon,” Johnny said, leaving no time for hesitation before he shooed them out the door, leaving them standing together in the muddy hallway, ready to set the plan in motion. 

Still in the room behind the closed door, Doyoung sighed, rubbing his temples. “You certainly live life on the edge, don’t you Johnny.” He sat down on one of the chairs, kicking his feet up on the table, knowing all he could do now was to wait.

Johnny hummed. “There’s something about him. I do genuinely think that we can trust him,” he admitted. “He’s too kind to ruin plans for people he has taken a liking to.”

“Never thought I’d see _the_ Seo Johnny acting shy. Is it love?” Doyoung teased.

“That’s not it. It’s just… I can’t put my finger on it.”

Doyoung rolled his eyes. “Mhm. Well, whatever, Johnny. You’re the heir, you decide. I just want to get the hell out of here, so if that is taken away from me, I won’t hesitate to kill.”

Johnny nodded. “That is within your right, Doyoung. I just can’t shake the feeling he might just be something… special. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

Doyoung could tell by the look of Johnny’s face that he was genuine. Something had sparked inside of Johnny after Taeyong had appeared and for that Doyoung had to be thankful. Whatever the outcome, he knew Johnny was right. He could feel it in the air. Taeyong sure was something else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You made it to the end of chapter 1! Thank you so much! Let me know what you think in the comments? I will try to update this as frequently as I can. 
> 
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